על הבריחה והמציאה ל״גOn Flight and Finding 33
א׳
1[183] There are also a variety of springs of education, by the side of which there grow up, like stems of palm-trees, upright forms of reason rich in nourishing food. For we read that “they came to Elim, and in Elim there were twelve springs of water, and seventy stems of palm-trees; and they encamped there by the waters” (Exod. 15:27). “Elim” means “gateways,” a figure of the entrance to virtue; for just as gateways are the beginnings of a house, so are the preliminary exercises of the schools the beginning of virtue.
ב׳
2[184] And twelve is a perfect number. The zodiac circle in the sky is a witness to this, being adorned with that number of luminous constellations: a further instance is the sun’s circuit, for it completes its round in twelve months, and men keep the hours of day and night equal in number to the months of the year.
ג׳
3[185] And Moses celebrates this number in several places, telling us of twelve tribes in the nation, directing twelve loaves to be set forth on the Table, bidding them weave twelve inscribed stones on the “oracle” in the holy vestment of the high priest’s full-length robe (Ex. 28:17 ff.).
ד׳
4[186] He also proclaims the ten-fold seven, telling in this passage of seventy palm-trees by the springs, and in another of the Divine Spirit of prophecy bestowed on only seventy elders (Num. 11:16), and again of seventy calves offered as victims at the Feast of Tabernacles arranged in divisions following a regular series: for they are not all sacrificed at once, but on different days, beginning with thirteen bull-calves (Num. 29:13 ff.); for in this way, the number being diminished by one every day up to the seventh, the aggregate of seventy would be made up.
ה׳
5[187] When they have arrived at the vestibules of virtue, the subjects of preliminary instruction, and have beheld springs and palms growing by them, they are said to encamp, not by the trees but by the waters. Why is this? Because palm and fillets are the adornment of those who carry off the prizes of consummate virtue, but those whose sphere is still that of the preliminary studies, athirst as they are for learning, settle down beside the springs of knowledge which are able to water their souls and give them drink.